Unexpected: a perfect beginning
by xxVictorious
Summary: The unplanned pregnancy story no-one asked for. Anya didn't stop him in time from leaving Paris. He's gone, with no way to contact him. She has something left of his, of course, that's changed her life forever. Maybe if he's lucky, it'll change his life too. (why yes, some Dimya angst, but eventually Dimya fluff)


**Well everyone: I saw Anastasia Saturday at the second to last show. My heart is absolutely shattered at the end of this beautiful performance. **

**I have so many ideas for fic now. This one has actually been swimming around for a while!**

**Disclaimer: I still own nothing**

Vlad Popov had not expected things to play out this way. He didn't expect Anya to run after Dmitry, only to find he had already caught his train out of town. He didn't expect Anya to come back to her grandmother's apartment, tears streaking her face, but accepting her title regardless. He did not expect to hear Anya sobbing every night as he and Lily walked past her door. He didn't expect the spunky, wild young woman he found on the streets to lose her heart when she lost Dmitry.

But this, this he expected least of all.

He wasn't sure what he expected, when he and Lily heard the knock on their door at two in the morning. He wasn't sure what he expected when he opened the door, to find a certain grand duchess there in a nightdress and a light coat.

He most certainly wasn't ready to see the way her hands grasped desperately over her abdomen, as she looked at him with ocean eyes flooding and realization hitting him like a brick-_ oh my god_

"Oh, Anya.." He whispered, his arms barely opened before she's crashed into them, her thin arms sobbing into his nightshirt.

Lily appears behind him in no time, looking at their sweet Anya in shock. She raised an eyebrow at Vlad, before stepping in and running her hand over Anya's arm.

"Anya, darling what's-_oh_" Her own question was answered when Anya turned, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. She caught a glimpse at her other hand, still where it was when Vlad realized, and just shook her head softly.

"How did this happen, Anya" Vlad started, running his hand over the honey blonde hair of the princess. "when…"

"You _Know _how it happened, Vlad!" Anya hissed, moving her hand a little, never taking it off her stomach, "back in Petersburg.. that night when I gave him the diamond. Or maybe on the train..or the night before the ballet."

"Wait wait..you've been hiding this for.." Lily counted on her fingers. "almost four months, Anya? Does your grandmother know?" Lily pulled Anya inside the room by her arm, sitting her down on the bench right by the door. She knelt infront of the young woman, running her fingers through the ends of her hair. "How have you hid this?

"No! She doesn't know and you can't tell her- Lily, promise me!" Anya's eyes were wide, as her head rapidly shook. "She'll take it from me, or make me marry someone, or… I can't Lily. It's all I have left.." It was true. All she had left, of her heart, was the potential of her child.

"She's going to find out, eventually, Anya.. you can't hide a baby forever." Lily moved to sit beside Anya, jerking her head at Vlad to sit the princesses other side. They each had an arm around her, holding her steady.

"She won't take it from you, Anya. She wouldn't do that…" Vlad promised, but glanced at Lily with an eyebrow raise. _She wouldn't, would she?"_

"Of course she wouldn't. She loves you, and she will love the thought of expanding what is left of her family. She's always loved babies, she doted on you and Alexei in specific." Lily patted the girl's knee, letting her lean her head against her shoulder.

"Find him, Vlad. Please." Anya pleaded, a new wave of tears overcoming her. "he doesn't even have to want it, I just want him to know."

Vlad just nodded, holding her hand. "Of course, Anya. I'll do everything I can."

Of course, he didn't know where to start.

Carrying a baby was harder on Anya than anyone anticipated. If training her to be an eloquent aristocrat was hard, watching her struggle through the past four months was agonizing.

The Dowager had taken about as well as Vlad anticipated- she doted on Anya. She had nothing but the best, and undoubtedly, so would her child. However, she did not take well to her Grand Duchess granddaughter having a baby while unmarried, even less the child of a conman.

It hurt them all, to know that Dmitry had loved her as much as she had loved him.

Maria knew, because of his refusal of her reward.

Vlad knew, because he watched them fall in love.

Lily knew, because Lily just knew these things.

Anya, it seemed, was the only one who was oblivious to what she had lost in Dmitry. She loved him. That was obvious in the way she spoke of him, the way she whispered to her ever growing child, and the way she cried herself to sleep every night.

As soon as Maria learned about her granddaughter's "state" she insisted on taking her out of the spot light.

"Those dresses are not appropriate for you, Anastasia. How you've been wearing them as long as you had is beyond me." She told her one morning at breakfast.

Anya only looked up from her tea, distracted. "Mama wore them until she had Alexei, I remember watching them lace her in every morning."

"And you are not the Tsarina, like she was. Give your body a rest." She had insisted, setting Lily on the task of making sure Anya dressed comfortably for the last two months.

Now, taking the newly rediscovered princess out of the spotlight only circulated rumors.

The rumors never end, and they travel faster than wildfire.

Dmitry made his way to Marseille. He needed work and Marseille was similar enough to Petersburg that it made it bearable. And he was still in France- far enough from Anya that he didn't see her, but close enough that he could know what she was doing. If she was happy, with the family she had found.

His heart was left behind in Paris, in an ex-street sweeper-turned-grand duchess. He could never admit it, though. Vlad was right. She broke his heart, alright. And he'd never see her again.

It had been nearly a year later, when the rumors broke into Marseille, about one Anastasia Romanov.

He had been at work, serving tables, when he heard them for the first time.

"_Didn't you hear? Poor thing, I heard her Grandmother took it and made it disappear. She was always a wicked woman."_

"_Oh don't be dramatic. I heard she nearly died in labor. She was so small, she never stood a chance."_

His heart sank, at the connotation of the conversation. But the word labor..that caught him off guard. He decided against questioning it, it was all a misunderstanding because of his language barrier he figured.

"_Yeah, I heard she showed up pregnant, convinced the woman, and now her kid is going to live like a king."_

"_She's been around for nine months, and just so happened to magically be pregnant when she showed up? I knew she was a fake."_

"_Well I heard it didn't make it anyway. But they haven't made any official announcement yet. Probably letting her mourn.. or getting rid of her, too."_

That conversation had caught his attention a little more. No.. Anya couldn't have had a child. He had seen her for the last time and she wasn't pregnant. That was easily.. _nine months_ ago.

No.

She couldn't have..

She wouldn't have kept that from him, would she? _You didn't give her a way to tell you, Dmitry._

Sure, it could have been rumors, but something in him told him to run. Told him to find her, and ask her the truth.

"_I heard it was some boy she was travelling with.. up and left her. But she's a duchess, not like a child really hurts her prospective husbands, does it?"_

It had been when he overheard that one, when he dropped the tray he was carrying, running out of the diner where he worked. He pulled paper and a pen out of his satchel before making it on the street. He penned a letter in short Russian, addressing it to where he knew his friend would be- with Lily, and therefore, close to Anya.

_Vlad,_

_Is she okay? _

_Dmitry. _

The letter had ironically reached Vlad the same day Anya went into labor. It was earlier than she expected- so she decided her baby came from Petersburg, then. Or at least that's what she'd say.

Vlad and Lily sat in the dining room, staring at the brief letter.

"Do I tell him?" Vlad asked her quietly, the sounds of Anya's sobs overwhelming their conversation from the background.

"You have to.. he has a right to know." Lily took a long drink of Vodka, her nails tapping impatiently on the glass.

"But is it my place to tell him-" It was another sob from Anya, disrupting their thoughts.

"He needs to come to her. She asked you months ago to find him, Vlad. Keep your promise."

"I can't break his heart all over again, Lily." Vlad shook his head, a tired hand running over his face. It was exhausting, he decided, to carry the burden of information.

"Then let him come here. Let him learn in person." Lily advised, standing. "I'm going to see her."

"I'll be in in a moment.." Vlad promised, addressing an envelope to the address Dmitry had provided.

_Dmitry,_

_She needs you. Come as soon as you can._

_She tried to find you that night you left. Remember that. _

_Vlad._

The letter was sent to Marseille the next morning.

"You are so _beautiful,"_ Anya cooed to her daughter, now nearly a week old. She was smaller than anything Anya ever held, with eyes the color of the Neva and messy hair the color of chestnuts. The second she held her she sobbed all over again- it was like holding her Dima in her arms again. The sobs that echoed through her Grandmother's flat that day, were both of pain, that Dmitry would never know her sweet daughter, and of pure joy, that she and Nana weren't alone anymore.

Her daughter was all she had, more valuable than any diamond in the world.

She was laying in her bed, the newborn in the crook of her arm. It was early, nearly time for breakfast, as she spent a few moments with the observant baby. She was humming softly to her, her thumb stroking her cheek over and over when the door flew open.

"Get dressed, Anya! There is someone here to see you!" Lily announced as she practically flew into the room, opening all the curtains.

"At breakfast? Nana said I didn't have to do any press until I was ready..and I'm not ready to share her with the world, Lily." She shifted in the bed, so the little girl was now facing her and not the harsh sunlight.

"Anya. This is going to be the most important meeting of your life. Get up." Lily demanded, holding her hands out. "and the baby. I'll dress her, while you dress yourself."

"I just fed her she's going to be fussy if you take her!" Anya warned, handing her infant over, regardless. Lily was persistent, and the faster this was over with, the sooner she could come back to bed to spend the day again with her daughter.

"I promise, Anya, this is worth it.." Lily smiled at the little girl, bouncing her slightly. "She looks more like her father every day-"

"Thank you for the reminder, Lily." Anya remarked bitterly, running a fine brush through her curls.

Impatient, Lily looked down the hall, where Vlad was frantically waving her. "Anya! Just..go like that. The nightgown is fine."

"You want me to go have the most important meeting of my life, in my nightgown?"

Lily wrapped the baby in her little white blanket, handing her to Anya. "I can promise you, that won't change a thing."

Anya took her daughter back without question, rolling her eyes as she started to walk down the hall. "Well, Alexandra, everyone is rather impatient today."

She entered the dining room, stifling a yawn.

"I wonder why."

If she had been holding anything less valuable than her daughter, the moment she heard that voice, she would have dropped it all.

"Dima." Anya whispered, subconsciously wrapping her arms tighter around her now perfectly alert daughter. "How did you-" She snapped her head to Vlad, who gave a nod, a big smile, and wiped tears from her eyes. Lily grabbed his hand, and lead him out of the dining room. They needed to be alone for this.

"I tried to find you, that night you left." Anya rambled out, barely finishing one sentence before beginning another. "I tried and I didn't know about her at the time, I didn't find out for a few weeks..and I had no way to contact you, I would have told you about her if I could. But.. don't stay just because you feel like you have to. I have her and she's wonderful and I love her and she deserves the world-"

Dmitry cut her off, a hand on either side of her face, pulling them together in a crashing kiss, a year in the making. Clearly, It wasn't the first time, but it was different. Longing and apologies spilled out between their lips. He pulled away, taking a step back and looking at her. His thumb caught the tear that fell out of her eye. "I'm sorry. For running. I'm so so sorry."

"it doesn't matter.." Anya managed out, one of her hands now reaching out to grab his. "You're here now. You're here-" Suddenly, it all fell into place for her. No more forced marriage. No more worrying about her fatherless daughter. Because Dmitry was here and breathing and alive. "And we're going to be just fine."

Dmitry smiled- a smile that could light up all of Petersburg by itself. He glanced down, and his breath caught in his chest. All the rumors, thank god none of them held the truth. Sure, Anya did have a baby- their beautiful daughter, _oh my god I have a daughter_, but she was perfectly healthy. "Whats her..when..can I-" He couldn't get the words out. He was so taken by the dark haired bundle in her arms.

Anya didn't wait, before shifting her daughter- _their _daughter- into his arms, a new set of tears filling her eyes. "Her name is Alexandra, like my mama." She answered, wiping her eyes with her palms. She was suddenly aware of her ridiculous outfit, but when she caught his- dirty from whatever he did to make it to her- she was overwhelmed again by the love she felt. He truly would cross the world for her. "And she's a week old. I think she may be a little souvenir from your Petersburg." Anya told him, her own hand running through Alexandra's soft hair. "I would have told you if I could have."

"Alexandra.." He whispered, enamored by his daughter. It was a moment they both dreamed of but never dared to hope for. "I'm so sorry, to you both."

"Shhhh" Anya whispered, leaning her head on his upper shoulder. "Just stay now."

They could address the rumors later. For now, all that mattered was Anya and Dmitry. The two of them back where they belonged- together. With their own piece of Petersburg, safe between them.

**Thank you so much for reading!**


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